Monday, 28 September 2015

Wonderland

Citizens Theatre, GlasgowThree stars

Why should Alice in Wonderland be forever presented as a white, blonde and veryEnglish ingénue? What if she was a little different, and the rabbit hole shefell down not as enticing as her own fantastical uniqueness? These are questionsposed by director and performer Josette Bushell-Mingo on the second and finalday of Progression 2015, this weekend's international celebration of deaf artshosted by the pioneering Glasgow-based Solar Bear Theatre Company.

The answers come in the show-and-tell finale that follows a day of workshops withsome of deaf theatre's leading practitioners, including Bushell-Mingo and herteam from the Swedish Tyst Theatre (Silent Theatre), a company which has beendeveloping deaf theatre for forty-five years as an offshoot of the nationaltouring company, Riksteatern.

The loose-knit programme begins with some interactive games with the audience before Bushell-Mingo hands over to a mix of hearing and non-hearing teenage actors, both from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, which has just announced the first ever UK-based British Sign Languagecourse for deaf performers, and from Solar Bear Deaf Youth Theatre.

As Alice becomes a Spartacus-like figure, a kind of communal empowerment is infusedthroughout the young cast that enables them to conquer their demons and haveconfidence in who they are. It's short, sharp and as fresh as any devised piececreated by a group of strangers over an hour that afternoon. Watching its mixof speech and signing simultaneously translated into Russian for the benefit ofthe Moscow-based Nedoslov company in attendance and then signed back to themitself becomes a beguiling demonstration of the power the international languageof theatre can transmit beyond anything mere words can muster.

About Me

Coffee-Table Notes is the online archive of Neil Cooper. Neil is an arts writer and critic based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Neil currently writes for The Herald, Product, The Quietus, Scottish Art News, Bella Caledonia and The List. He has contributed chapters to The Suspect Culture Book (Oberon), Dear Green Sounds: Glasgow's Music Through Time and Buildings (Waverley) and Scotland 2021 (Eklesia), and co-edited a special Arts and Human Rights edition of the Journal of Arts & Communities (Intellect). Neil has written for Map. Line, The Wire, Plan B, The Arts Journal, The Times, The Independent, Independent on Sunday, The Scotsman, Sunday Herald, Scotland on Sunday, Sunday Times (Scotland), Scottish Daily Mail, Edinburgh Evening News, Is This Music? and Time Out Edinburgh Guide. Neil has written essays for Suspect Culture theatre company, Alt. Gallery, Newcastle, Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Berwick upon Tweed Film and Media Arts Festival and Ortonandon. Neil has appeared on BBC and independent radio and TV, has provided programme essays for John Good and Co, and has lectured in arts journalism at Napier University, Edinburgh.